David Gonzales

We can’t count how many times we’ve encountered people who firmly believe that there’s only so many ways you can turn a rectangular slab of metal, glass, and plastic, to make it look like a proper smartphone. And honestly, we can hardly blame them. But after a brief period of testing the LG V10, we may have to rethink that idea. The LG V10 is the new flagship Android phone from LG that marries a peerless, military-grade lightweight body with features that would rival those of most high-end handsets. Off a short list of its main specs, you’ll find at least three different things that make it unique and interesting. To understand exactly what we’re talking about, continue reading our LG V10 review. Design and build quality The LG V10’s body can be described simply as sexy but undeniably sturdy. Its tough chassis is built to withstand falls, and it…

Kata in recent memory is nothing if not prolific. The release of the company’s latest smartphone, packed with many of today’s top entry-level Android features, only proves that. In this review, we’re taking a look at the Kata i3 LTE — or Kata i3L — a phone that’s headed straight to the hands of budget-minded consumers with an affinity for jolly green robots. First, here’s the retail box. And here are the contents. Design and build quality Looks-wise, the Kata i3L is quite simple. It’s available in two colors, black and white, and it uses onscreen keys on the touchscreen display for menu navigation. Because of this, the Kata i3L only has three visible hardware buttons. These are the power button, volume up button, and volume down button. It uses a plastic battery cover with a plain rendition of the Kata branding. Plus, its sides are lined with a somewhat…

Cellprime Distribution Corporation, or Cellprime, today announced an official business partnership with global giants Gionee and Hyundai, in a bid to corner more of the local smart device market. In a press event held at the PBA Cafe in Metrowalk, Pasig City, Philippines, Cellprime President Eric Yu took to the stage to talk about the business partnership’s specifics. As part of the partnership, Cellprime will now be the exclusive distributor of high-end Gionee smartphones here in the Philippines. That includes such phones as the Gionee S Plus, Gionee P8, and the Gionee P5w. You can expect to see Gionee’s high-end products being sold and marketed by Cellprime throughout the first quarter of 2016. According to the official press release, the move to partner with Gionee, which is now a world-leading Chinese smartphone brand, was made in order to increase Cellprime’s “stable of power brands.” “As heavy users of social networking…

There have been a lot of models in the Flare series of phones from Cherry Mobile over the past couple of years. The Cherry Mobile Flare S Play is yet one more addition, and this time around it offers not only the usual mix of Android smartphone goodness but also built-in support for digital TV. Here’s our review of the Cherry Mobile Flare S Play.

One locally known brand that has been stepping up its game recently is Kata Philippines. This year, the company launched its very first 4G LTE-enabled Android handset. It’s called the Kata M2L, and while a bit unimaginative in that regard, it’s intended to let you do things you might never have even imagined. So what kind of phone is the Kata M2L? How well does it utilize the ability to connect to 4G data networks? If you want to find out the answers to these questions and more, continue reading for more info from our Kata M2L full review. Design and build quality Like many other Kata devices, the Kata M2L is made out in the color white. It has some metallic accents but otherwise, it’s just plain white. It’s also made out of a combination of plastic, metal, and glass, like many other Android phones available today. Its screen…

Lenovo is slowly, but surely making its way into the hearts and minds of many Filipinos. What evidence do we have to prove this? Well, apart from popping up in more and more malls through kiosks and coming up with more budget-friendly models, the company has also been trying to perfect the same, tried and tested formula of a well-performing, user-friendly smartphone. That smartphone in its latest iteration is called the Lenovo A6000 Plus. It’s a 5-inch HD Android phone with superb audio chops and a reasonable retail price tag. After a couple of weeks with the A6000 Plus, we’re here to give you a better look at it as an option for the modern Android smartphone user. Design and build quality The Lenovo A6000 Plus looks a lot like the smartphone from Lenovo that came before it. Like we said earlier, it’s based on the same tried and tested…

Will this country’s obsession with things that are related to or somehow connected to “sticks” ever end? Maybe. But for now, it seems like there are plenty of stuff that are so much better when they are “on-a-stick” — or so it seems. PLDT today announced a breakthrough partnership that involves top entertainment corporations in the U.S. as well as home computing desktop Microsoft, in a move to launch a new gadget that’s intended to turn any TV into a personal computer. Dubbed the PLDT TVolution Stick, it’s a variation of the Intel Compute Stick that was first announced locally a few months back, and joins the first OTT (over-the-top) device from PLDT HOME which was aimed at raising the bar in terms of both home entertainment and home computing. According to PLDT VP and HOME Marketing Director Gary Dujali, the aforementioned Intel Compute Stick launch was the signal needed…

Cherry Mobile Flare 4 Review There are literally dozens of so-called budget phones on the market now that it’s getting close to impossible to pick out a clear “budget winner.” Fortunately for anyone who wants to get the best Android smartphone available without spending an arm and a leg, the Flare series from Cherry Mobile is still going strong. The Cherry Mobile Flare series, of course, is the popular line of Android phones from one of the country’s top local electronics companies today, and it’s been known as a good source of phones that deliver a lot of bang for your buck, no matter how low your budget might be. Check out our episode of Collab about the new Cherry Mobile Flare Series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LA01s68NOQ So right now the Flare is available in about a dozen different variations, and one of them is called the Cherry Mobile Flare 4. Whereas in…

BlackBerry today officially launched the BlackBerry PRIV smartphone as its first ever “pure” Android device in the Philippines, running a near-stock — slightly modified — version of the Android OS and offering many well-known BlackBerry-exclusive niceties. Things like the BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry’s unified messaging system that spans SMS, email, and social media communications, as well as BlackBerry brand security and privacy that can’t be found anywhere else, come pre-loaded on the PRIV as part of its customized software. The BlackBerry PRIV is powered by a Qualcomm chip called the Snapdragon 808, which is comprised of six separate cores clocked at 1.8GHz, with support for 64-bit computing. It also has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, plus a hot-swappable microSD card slot that supports an astonishing 2TB of external storage. Camera-wise, the PRIV offers a Schneider-Kreuznach-certified 18-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), 4K video recording at…

This year, it seems that handy tablets really took off and became mainstream. And you may find it hard to argue against this. Literally everyone and your mother has a tablet now. Oh, yours doesn’t yet? Well, then here’s something you might like. The Kata T4 is a device that won’t look out of place in a lineup of recent Android-powered tablets. It has an overall look and feel that is driven by “impressively beautiful design and premium features,” at least according to Kata, and it’s the subject of our newest hardware review today. The T4 tablet’s so-called premum design is teased by the graphic on the easy-to-open retail box. It shows the Kata T4 itself with the familiar Kata device home screen. Everything looks fine as far as the box is concerned, and about the only question we could think to ask is, how much is Nemo getting paid…

There seems to be a big push for local phones to have premium looks lately. So, not to be outdone by the competition, Kata recently launched the Kata i4 smartphone. If you haven’t heard of it yet, now is the perfect time to get acquainted with it. Read on for our full review of the Kata i4. In case you need to brush up on your Kata i4 specs knowledge, here’s what you need to know. It sports a 5-inch HD touchscreen display, 16MP rear camera and 8MP front cam combo, and it runs on a 1.7GHz octa-core processor. Storage is inbuilt, as is the battery, but it appears to be an all-around interesting phone. Let’s start by examining the design. The Kata i4 caught us by surprise when we took it out of its box. And the reason why is because it may actually be the very first phone…

Have you noticed that there have been more and more new phones and tablets coming out lately? This always seems to happen right around the Holiday Season, which just so happens to be right now. One of the newest phones to make their way into the Philippines is called the Infinix Hot Note, and it’s a phablet-status smartphone running a slightly modified version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. If the Infinix Hot Note can be said to be big on any one thing, it’s the screen. Secondary to that would be its pre-installed OS and onboard apps. Finally, it should also catch your attention with its good overall performance. We’ve been using one for a while now and we would know. Learn more about the Infninix Hot Note here in our latest review. Design and build quality In terms of design the Infinix Hot Note is not too flashy. Our review…

Earlier today, Lenovo Mobile Philippines took to Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque City, Philippines to unveil not one, not two, but three new Android phones, all falling under their world-famous Vibe series. The new phones are equipped with outstanding cameras and long-lasting battery life, supposedly enough to make you consider getting any one of the three of them for the upcoming Christmas season. The first handset announced, the star of the local launch show, is called the Lenovo Vibe S1. It’s billed as the first smartphone in the Philippines with a dual-selfie camera setup. As in, it has two separate cameras on the front, both designed for taking the best selfies possible with what lighting is available. The Lenovo Vibe S1’s main features include a 5-inch Full HD IPS touchscreen display, a 1.7GHz octa-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 4G LTE connectivity, and a 2420mAh battery. If you’re wondering…

The Starmobile Knight Spectra is the latest Android phablet to be announced for the Philippines, and here’s why it deserves your attention: it’s going to be the first among local phones with a dual camera setup at the back. You read that right, there will be two cameras on the back of this one phone. So apart from having a huge screen and the some pretty advanced hardware and software specs, the Starmobile Knight Spectra has that “extra sauce” that shows the local company’s determination to keep taking mobile photography a little more seriously than the competition. Here’s a quick list of the Knight Spectra’s specs: Starmobile Knight Spectra specs: Snapdragon 615 CPU (octa-core) + Adreno 405 GPU 3GB RAM + 32GB internal storage (microSD card support available) 5.5-inch Full HD On-Cell AMOLED IPS screen Scratch resistant display protection 13-megapixel rear main camera with LED flash + 2-megapixel rear backup…

Who else but Asus Philippines would unleash not one, not two, but a total of three new hardcore gaming laptops all before the Holiday Season? And they did it at one of the country’s hottest party locations — Valkyrie Nightclub in BGC, Taguig — to boot. It was there in that rocking and truly eventful place that we witnessed the unveiling of new models in the ROG laptop line. The ROG gaming notebooks revealed at the most recent Asus Philippines event are none other than the Asus ROG G572, Asus ROG G501, and Asus ROG GL552. All three laptops are powered by Intel’s 6th-generation Core processors and use NVIDIA GTX GPUs for all gaming-related needs. They also come preloaded with Windows 10 right out of the box. And each model is covered with a 2-year Asus “parts and services” warranty. Here’s what you need to know about the models, one…

We’ve spent more than a week with the newly-released ZUK Z1 smartphone now, and we know a lot more about what it’s like not only as a phone but also as a handheld mobile computing device. What exactly are we talking about? Well, you’ve got to read this full review to find out.

The ZUK Z1 is, in case you don’t know, a foreign product that was brought to the Philippines recently through one of the biggest names among local distributors, Iridium Technologies. And now that it’s here, it’s poised to steal the thunder of many other smartphone brands and phone models by virtue of it simply existing.

Some say that the “PC” — otherwise known as Personal Computer — as we know it may be going away soon. Because never mind desktop computers, it seems that more and more people are apparently buying phones and tablets over actual laptops these days, right? Well, there are still people out there who prefer to use a computer on a table-top. How do we know this? Because we are among those people. For that reason, we felt mildly delighted when we learned that ASUS was launching the premium Asus Zen AiO Pro all-in-one PCs here in the Philippines. These are high-end all-in-one desktop computer that are more than just simple workhorses. They can also be used as stylish centerpieces to any room or office. Here’s what you need to know about the new Asus Zen AiO Pro specs-wise: The all-in-one body is actually a unibody shell made out of a…